Woman sues over wrong $ transfer

Photo: Jeff Mayers

A CHAGUANAS woman has sued a bank for Can$500,000 (TT$4 million) after the bank allegedly transferred the money to two United States companies. Indra Naraynsingh filed her lawsuit in the San Fernando High Court on Wednesday.

According to her claim, she had two accounts with the bank: a TT dollar account and a Canadian dollar account. She deposited $4 million into the TT dollar account and instructions were given to the manager of her home branch to transfer to her Canadian dollar account, at the bank’s branch in Toronto, Canada, in July.

The woman said she was assured that the money would be wired and gave her banking details. Naraynsingh, who is represented by Anand Ramlogan, SC, Alvin Pariagsingh and Chelsea Stewart, said that in August the transfer was not done and she returned to her home branch to find out happened.

She said she was told she was not on a waiting list for the transfer of Canadian dollars to an external account and was advised to complete new forms for the transfer of the money in five equal tranches. The woman said she withdrew $1 million of the Canadian currency as she was leaving TT for Canada, leaving in her account $3.7 million.

In September, she was told by the bank that the TT currency was converted to Canadian dollars and had been sent. Naraynsingh said that on September 28, her financial adviser at her Toronto bank told her there had been no transfer.

She returned to TT, visited her home branch and was told that the money had been transferred to two companies in the US. Naraynsingh said at no time did she instruct anyone at the bank to transfer money to American accounts, and, fearing she had been swindled, withdrew all her money from her TT account. She also claimed her signature had been forged.